with the hours ticking down towards the fiscal cliff deadline, china's manufacturing activity hits its fastest pay in a year and a half. and as we head towards the end of the year, global markets hook up some decent returns. outperformers this year include german, japanese and hong kong shares. >>> if you're just tuning in, thanks for joining us this morning. we'll give you a look at how mblths are faring ahead of the open. the do i jouns is poised to shed about 70 points for the open, 10 for the s&p 500 and 13 for the nasdaq. these figures are off the lows that we saw friday evening and even over the weekend as the first sense of fiscal cliff failure negotiations are becoming a reality. germany is closed today. the cac 40 outperforming in paris. the ftse and ibex are outperforming. the manufacturing figures from china helped to turn things around. indeed, the shanghai composite up 1.6%. hang seng in hong kong a little lower on the morning. shanghai composite in the positive by 1.6%. new evidence has emerged that chinese companies are actively helping iran evade trade sanctions. accord